


The Silence of Snow

by elegant_malice, June_Ellie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Childhood Friends, Murder Mystery, Snow, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 17:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15490824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elegant_malice/pseuds/elegant_malice, https://archiveofourown.org/users/June_Ellie/pseuds/June_Ellie
Summary: Five friends. A snowstorm. One dead body.





	The Silence of Snow

**Author's Note:**

> Co-written for a Uni assignment, where we were supposed to write our own crime fiction story. The lecturers marking it didn't seem too impressed, but we're still pleased with it.
> 
> Elegant Malice would like it on record that she is dead, and will likely remain dead for the foreseeable future.

Snowflakes floated daintily through the air as a chilly wind blew through the trees. Snow muffled the landscape, but it was not enough to mask the voices of five teenagers, laughing and chatting as they trudged through the area. A key turned in a lock, followed by hoots of laughter and a joyful exclamation. Boots pounded on wooden boards as the group exulted in the warmth of their surroundings.

“Feels good to be out of the cold, doesn’t it?” Mary laughingly brushed snow out of her hair.

“It would have been less cold if Ryan hadn’t been hurling snowballs at us,” Vincent scowled at the unrepentant jock.

“Oh come on, lighten up! What’s winter without a snowball fight?” Ryan grinned back at the surly artist.

“Perhaps when we were kids. You do realise high school students are expected to carry themselves with some degree of dignity?” Hayley raised an eyebrow at Ryan as she strode past him into the hallway.

“You’re one to talk, Miss Ice Queen. How dignified could you possibly look rushing out of a classroom, tripping over nothing and spilling your papers all over the hallway?” Ryan snorted.

“I told you to stop bringing that up! It was an accident, alright?” Hayley glared at Ryan.

“Are you feeling better now Hayley?” A fifth voice spoke up. The duo turned to look at Alice, who was the last to enter the cabin. “You seemed really stressed right before finals.”

Hayley’s glare softened. “I’m fine, thanks for asking. Besides, finals are over. That’s why we’re here.”

“It was nice of your parents to let us stay in their cabin to unwind after finals,” Mary piped up.

Hayley nodded her head graciously. Coming from a relatively well-off family, it wasn’t uncommon for her to treat her friends to a few luxurious outings once in a while. Of course, not just any friends. Theirs was a group of five that had grown up together from childhood. Hayley was a straight-laced overachiever due to her parent’s upbringing. While it took some time for her to warm up to people, it was Ryan who first got her to open up slowly. Ryan was an extroverted boy and made friends with everyone by being cheerfully annoying. Then, there was Vincent, who seemed to be Ryan’s polar opposite. Since young, he had been cynical and bitingly sarcastic to everyone, but his insults seemed to bounce right off Ryan where they would have offended others.

As for Mary, she was easy going and well-liked by everyone due to her peaceful and genial nature. Unsurprisingly, everyone in the group had a soft spot for her. Lastly, there was Alice. Shy and withdrawn, she tended to be quiet. Yet she was unfailingly loyal to her friends and served as their pillar of support when any of them were having problems.

“Alright, let’s put away our things and meet downstairs for dinner. Remember, it’s one person to each room. That means no bunking together, lovebirds,” Hayley smirked at Ryan and a blushing Mary.

The group laughed good-naturedly and headed up the stairs, eager to begin their vacation.

* * *

“Wow Vincent, for someone as bitter as yourself, you sure can cook up a sweet treat for us!” Ryan teased as he polished off the last crumbs of his cake.

“Any more smartass comments from you, and you’ll get a snowball for your next meal,” Vincent shot back, though his mouth twitched with the ghost of a smile.

Maybe it was just her, but it seemed to Alice as though Ryan and Vincent had become less antagonistic over the past few weeks. While the two had always been friendly rivals, their arguments had grown more frequent as they grew older and began to compete for Mary’s affections. The tension in their friendship was still apparent in the weeks leading up to finals, a good few months after Ryan and Mary had begun dating.

Of course, Alice thought with a wry smirk, now they sound like an old married couple. Glancing at Mary, she saw a fond grin on the other girl’s face as the boys continued their good-natured bickering. Hayley, on the other hand, rolled her eyes at their antics, muttering about how some people never grow up.

As the day’s journey caught up to her, the warm glow of good food and company was slowly making Alice feel drowsy. Clearing her throat softly, she interrupted the boys. “Thanks for the meal, Vincent. I think I’m going to turn in for the night. See you guys in the morning.” She rose and headed up the stairs as the others wished her good night.

It had been a pleasant surprise earlier when she discovered that her room had its own old-fashioned fireplace, giving it a cozy atmosphere. As she got ready to turn in for the night, she heard laughter coming from downstairs. With a smile on her face, she crawled into bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

* * *

**“Bang!”**

Alice shot upright in her bed, heart pounding wildly. From downstairs, she heard two furious voices shouting over each other. It took her a few moments to remember where she was. Then she leapt out of bed and rushed out of her room. In the hallway, she ran into Hayley and Mary, who had been woken by the commotion as well. The three girls headed down the stairs to investigate.

The scene before them was shocking, to say the least. The coffee table had been overturned. Ryan stood behind it, face red with anger. On the opposite side of the room, Vincent’s face was white as he trembled with fury. “Do you always act without thinking, you naive idiot? Your lack of common sense will kill you someday!” He spat venomously.

“And what about you? You’re a coward! Always afraid to take chances because you’re scared of getting hurt!” Ryan shouted back.

As he took a step towards Vincent, Hayley stepped forward and interjected coldly, “And just what do you two idiots think you’re doing? Damaging my parents’ cabin, making a ruckus at 3 in the morning and looking ready to rip each other’s heads off?”

“Why don’t you ask our resident cynic? I’m done here.” With that, Ryan stormed upstairs without a second glance. There was a loud slam, followed by silence.

Vincent’s face paled even further, and without a word he turned and fled upstairs. Alice made to go after him, only to have Mary put a hand on her shoulder, her usual smile nowhere to be seen. “Wait, I’ll go talk to him.” Alice nodded as Mary started up the stairs after Vincent.

In the middle of the room, Hayley was attempting to right the toppled coffee table. “Mind giving me a hand here?” The two girls quickly straightened up the living room, restoring it to its pristine condition.

“Do you think we should do something?” Alice looked at the taller girl.

“No point, they’d only start yelling again. Best leave them to cool off. You’d better get some rest,” Hayley replied, not unkindly. “Come on.” The two girls ascended the stairs, parting ways outside their respective rooms. Alice crawled back into bed, eventually falling into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

As the sun rose over the frozen landscape, a terrified yell startled Alice awake. Fearing for her friends’ safety, she went straight to the source of the yell and found Vincent crouching by the fireplace of Ryan’s room. His eyes were wide with horror, face as white as it had been the previous night. He was gripping a hunting knife, blood dripping from it onto the floor. With a sick feeling in her stomach, Alice looked behind Vincent.

A motionless body lay on the ground and as her horrified eyes travelled up the bloodstained clothing, her gaze came to a stop. Ryan’s head rested against the hearth of the fireplace. His eyes were wide open and with a painful twist, Alice realised that they would never close again.

Alice dimly registered footsteps behind her, but all she could focus on was the hunting knife in Vincent’s hand. “You… how could you…?” She whispered, slowly backing away from Vincent.

Vincent shook his head frantically. “It wasn’t me, I swear! I found him like this when I got here!”

Mary’s voice cried out, “What’s going on?” Stepping forward, she caught sight of Ryan’s corpse. Immediately, she stumbled backwards in horror with her hands clapped over her mouth.

Hayley’s eyes narrowed as she took in the scene. “Vincent, put down the hunting knife,” she addressed the shaking boy. With a start, he seemed to realise he was still holding the knife and immediately dropped it.

Through a haze of shock, Alice registered Hayley checking for a pulse and shaking her head. From far away, she heard Hayley telling Mary to call the police. Mary tearfully complied, rushing down the stairs to find the telephone. It could have been minutes or hours later when she returned and informed them that the lines were down. With a frown on her face, Hayley went downstairs to see for herself and the rest followed. Picking up the phone, her frown deepened. Replacing the receiver with a firm click, she strode towards the door.

As soon as Hayley pulled the door open, a mountain of snow began tumbling inwards. Biting back a curse, she slammed the door shut. A glance out the window confirmed their suspicions: A snowstorm had occurred overnight. Chest-high snow surrounded the cabin.

“We’re trapped,” Vincent spoke up shakily for the first time.

“Does that mean the killer’s still here?” Mary cast a worried glance at the door.

Surprisingly, it was Alice’s voice which broke the spell.

“It means that one of us killed Ryan.” Her voice was steady, but no one could mistake the trembling of her clasped fingers.

Outside the window, the wind howled across the empty landscape and flung snow in a maddened spray around the cabin. The group instinctively huddled closer for protection - then stopped. Turning around to face each other, wariness crossed their faces as they sized each other up.

Could she be the killer?

Could he have done that to Ryan?

“That’s not possible!” Mary protested. “I don’t believe for a second here that one of us is a killer. I mean, we’ve been friends for more than fifteen years. Why would anyone…” She swallowed. “Do this sort of thing?”

No answer was forthcoming, but Alice noticed Hayley glancing at Vincent.

“Vincent, why were you holding that hunting knife earlier?” Hayley’s cool voice echoed through the silent room.

He flinched at her accusatory tone. “It was… I went to apologise to Ryan for our argument. He didn’t answer the door when I knocked. I thought it was strange, he’s usually a light sleeper… The door wasn’t locked so I went in, and then I saw him… lying there like that. There was a knife sticking out from his chest. I wasn’t thinking straight, I thought he might still be alive, so I just pulled it out…”

“Well, you could have killed him with the hunting knife and then made up the entire story so that we’d believe you,” Hayley said coldly.

“I didn’t kill him!” Vincent was close to tears.

Thinking quickly, Alice suggested, “Why don’t we head up to the room to examine the scene first?”

* * *

Back in the room, Hayley bent over the body while Alice crouched beside her. Meanwhile, Mary was sitting in a corner, quietly comforting Vincent.

Moments later, after the two girls consolidated their findings, Hayley announced the results of their examination.

“The hunting knife in question had Ryan’s name engraved on it. From the looks of it, whoever killed him must have taken him by surprise; there were no signs of a struggle. The wound looks pretty deep; he lost a lot of blood. Most likely, the force of the stabbing caused him to fall backwards and hit his head against the fireplace hearth. This was the position we found him in earlier. If the knife wound hadn’t killed him, the head trauma would have. Whoever stabbed him must have been pretty strong,” she concluded, looking at Vincent once more.

Alice looked from Vincent’s shaking form to Mary’s horrified face. “Mary, what happened last night when you went to speak to Vincent?”

Mary glanced at the dead body and then quickly looked away. “I tried to calm him down after the argument and we talked for a while. When I left him, he seemed to have cooled down and was regretting his outburst. He wouldn’t tell me what they were arguing about though.”

“And just what were you arguing about?” Hayley turned her cold gaze on Vincent. Vincent pressed his lips together and looked away. “That’s not important now.”

Hayley raised an eyebrow. “Let me venture a guess. The two of you were arguing over Mary again, weren’t you? You were always jealous of Ryan because he outshone you in every way. Ryan was sick of your attempts at winning his girlfriend’s affections, so he tried to warn you off…” She deliberately let her voice trail off, watching Vincent’s reaction.

As Hayley spoke, Vincent had begun to tremble wildly, shaking his head in frantic denial. “I would never… please, you have to believe me…”

“Enough lies, Vincent! You went to Ryan’s room after Mary left and stabbed him, then pretended to discover the body this morning. All so you could have his girlfriend for yourself!” Hayley pointed an accusing finger at Vincent, causing the latter to flinch violently.

Vincent looked close to a breakdown. His hands were trembling uncontrollably and tears were streaming down his face. With rapid shallow breaths, his eyes darted from person to person. “Please… I swear I didn’t…”

At this juncture, Mary spoke up hesitantly. “Actually… Ryan and I broke up two months ago.”

All eyes turned to her. “What?” Alice could barely believe her ears.

“We kept quiet about it because we didn’t want to distract you guys with finals around the corner. We were going to mention it after the exams ended,” Mary explained, glancing apologetically at Vincent.

“This changes nothing,” Hayley said decisively. “If anything, that gives Vincent even more of a motive for the murder. Ryan must have felt jealous that Vincent was making a move on his ex-girlfriend when he still loved her. Last night, Ryan confronted Vincent about it to demand that he back off. When Vincent refused, this was the end result,” Hayley gestured towards Ryan’s body.

Silence followed, punctuated only by Vincent’s hiccuping sobs.

Alice frowned. “There’s one thing I don’t understand. How did the murderer get hold of Ryan’s hunting knife? While I can see Ryan bringing a knife with him on vacation, a hunting knife isn’t exactly something you walk around with.”

“Actually, he’s been wearing it in a sheath on his belt for the last few weeks,” Mary explained. “Said it was a gift from someone. It wouldn’t have been hard for the murderer to get hold of it.”

“Really? I’ve never seen it,” Hayley looked as surprised as Alice felt.

“Well, he obviously couldn’t bring it to school. We’ve been so busy lately, we’ve hardly seen each other outside school. I happened to notice it one day when I went to return a book I borrowed from him,” Mary replied. “He was probably carrying it yesterday when we arrived, though you wouldn’t have seen it since we were all wearing coats.”

“I see. Anyway, with that cleared up, what should we do about the murderer in our midst?” Hayley turned her glare back on Vincent who barely noticed, face buried in his hands.

“Wait, Hayley. Are you really sure it was Vincent? I just can’t believe that he would do something like this,” Alice protested. “None of us can prove where we were last night.”

“Look, as Mary pointed out earlier, we’ve been friends for years. None of us would kill Ryan for no good reason, and the only person with a solid motive is Vincent. Besides, do you honestly think any of us girls would be strong enough to stab and kill Ryan?” Hayley retorted.

“If that’s the case, why would he make himself look suspicious by being the first one to enter Ryan’s room?” Alice persisted.

“Fingerprints,” Hayley answered simply. “As Mary said, Ryan wore that knife on his belt. Vincent grabbed it and stabbed Ryan with it, which would have left his fingerprints all over. By entering the room this morning, he has an excuse for his fingerprints being on the knife since he pulled it out of Ryan’s body.”

Alice looked to Vincent, but it seemed that the boy had retreated back into himself and wasn’t going to be much help. With nothing to add, Alice went back to standing next to Ryan’s body.

“Shouldn’t we close his eyes?” Mary asks in a small voice. “And maybe move him to a corner and put a sheet over him.”

Hayley’s reply came instantly. “That’s not a good idea. When the police arrive, they won’t be too happy about us tampering with the crime scene more than we already have. I suggest we leave him where he is and put a sheet over him.”

“But we’re snowed in,” Alice pointed out. “It’ll be a few days before anyone gets here. We’ll wear gloves and move him carefully. It’s just… seeing him sprawled out like this doesn’t seem right.”

Before Hayley could protest, Alice and Mary went to grab their gloves.

The two girls bent down to lift the body, slowly moving it to the left. Abruptly, Alice’s grip on the body slipped and it dropped facedown on the floor.

“You idiots! I told you to be careful,” Hayley exclaimed.

As Mary mumbled an apology, Alice’s eyes were drawn to the back of Ryan’s head. There was no sign of bruising whatsoever and it looked intact. Glancing over at the fireplace, she noticed a faint trace of dried blood in a small corner of the hearth that Ryan’s head had been resting on. Something about it niggled at a corner of her brain and she began to feel uneasy. No one should have known that Ryan hit his head when they couldn’t have seen the bloodstain. After all, it had only been uncovered when they moved his body.

Looking at Hayley, her suspicions grew.

“It’s you isn’t it?” Alice whispered.

“What are you talking about?” Hayley raised an eyebrow.

“How did you know that Ryan hit his head? There wasn’t a visible wound on the back of his head. The only indication would have been from the blood on the hearth, which wasn’t visible until after we lifted his body,” Alice argued.

Hayley rolled her eyes. “He was lying on the fireplace hearth. Of course he hit his head.”

However, Alice wasn’t convinced and persisted. “But it makes more sense to assume that the murderer placed his body there after death. Which is more likely: The murderer stabbed Ryan hard enough to knock him over, or the murderer stabbed Ryan, he slumped forward and the murderer laid him down? In either case, how would you have known that he hit his head when none of us saw the bloodstain on the hearth?”

True enough, they all saw the spot of dried blood on the hearth where it was previously concealed by Ryan’s head.

“And you think I’d be strong enough to stab him?” Hayley stared at Alice incredulously.

“No.” She said slowly. “That’s why I don’t think any of us killed him. At least, not deliberately.”

By now, Vincent was looking up and he seemed to come out of his shock-induced trance. He blinked and stood up from where he’d been slumped in a corner for the past few minutes.

“What do you mean deliberately?” Hayley asked and took a step forward towards Alice.

But Alice refused to back down. Somehow, even as a part of her hated how everyone was looking at her for answers, she couldn’t help but feel that she owed it to Ryan to find out the truth.

“It would be hard for any of us to kill Ryan. But if someone shoved him backwards when he wasn’t expecting it and ended up killing him by accident, they might have panicked and decided to cover up his actual cause of death by stabbing him.” As she spoke, her small voice grew stronger with each word.

“This is all circumstantial!” Hayley snapped back, her features twisted with anger. “You can’t blame me for trying to solve a murder. I’m just helping out and all you’re doing is standing there and accusing me. What have you done to help anyway?”

Usually, a direct jab at her worth would make Alice flinch but a surge of anger unexpectedly flared up. “And all the evidence against Vincent is circumstantial, yet you don’t seem to have any problems with it.”

Now it was Mary’s turn to speak up. “Where’s the sheath for Ryan’s hunting knife? I don’t see it anywhere on his body.”

A cursory examination of their surroundings confirmed Mary’s words.

“Alice, if you’re right and the murder wasn’t deliberate, maybe the killer accidentally snapped the sheath off Ryan’s belt and ended up taking it in their panic,” Vincent suddenly spoke up, finally seeming to be aware of his surroundings again.

“In that case, Hayley, if you insist you didn’t kill Ryan, let us search your room,” Alice suggested as Mary and Vincent both turned to face Hayley.

“...Alright.”

* * *

It took merely fifteen minutes to find the sheath hidden up Hayley’s fireplace. When they found it, no one said anything.

Hayley opened her mouth, then stopped. There was nothing she could say.

In a gentle voice, Alice looked Hayley in the eye and asked, “Why did you do it?”

Hayley, who was usually composed and unflappable, seemed to deflate before their eyes. Looking at her friends, she took a deep breath, then another. “...Remember that joke Ryan made about me being clumsy when we arrived here yesterday?”

Vincent cried out, horrified, “You killed him because of a joke?”

A bit of the old Hayley returned as she snapped, “Of course not!” She averted her gaze. “That day, I was walking out of the staff room and ran into Ryan. I tripped and dropped everything I was holding, he helped me to pick them up. I was afraid he might have seen…” She trailed off and seemed unable to continue.

Remembering Hayley’s extreme stress over the last month, Alice prompted: “Does this have something to do with finals?”

Hayley looked up, meeting Alice’s sympathetic gaze. Taking a deep breath, she continued. “My parents had been pressuring me… This is our last semester before college and I couldn’t afford to get anything less than straight A’s. I’ve been having problems coping with the workload, and my grades… I couldn’t afford to do badly for finals. I just…”

“What did you do, Hayley?” Mary whispered into the silence that followed.

Hayley closed her eyes, turning away from her audience. “I snuck into the staff room and copied the answer key for finals. Ryan bumped into me when I left… I thought he might have looked at the papers I dropped and realised I was cheating.”

Her voice began to crack. “Last night, I couldn’t sleep after the argument that woke us. I decided to go speak to Ryan and see how he was holding up. We chatted for a while, then he made some offhand remark about me acing finals. I immediately panicked, thinking he’d figured out what I’d done. He seemed to realise that I was shaking and came closer, asking if I was alright. Without thinking I shoved him backwards… he hit his head on the hearth with a sickening crack. It was an accident, I swear. I didn’t mean to… I checked his pulse but he wasn’t breathing.”

Hayley’s usually cold eyes were glittering with tears. “I panicked… I didn’t want to get into trouble. I saw he had a knife at his belt, but I accidentally pulled the sheath off when I tried to remove it. I stabbed him with the knife because I didn’t want anyone to suspect it was me. It was the only way I could think of to cover my tracks. I wasn’t thinking straight… I picked up the sheath and brought it back to my room. When I realised what I’d done, I hid it in my fireplace. I couldn’t get rid of it without going downstairs, which might have woken someone. This morning, when Vincent found the body and pulled out the knife… I couldn’t bring myself to admit what I’d done… I tried to pin the blame on him instead.”

Mary stared at Hayley in horror while Alice remained silent. However, Vincent seemed furious, fists clenched in rage. Yet, his anger didn’t seem to be solely caused by Hayley’s false accusation. Almost unthinkingly, Alice picked up the sheath which had exposed Hayley and turned it over in her hand.

On the other side, there was a message engraved: _Yours always, V._

There was no one they knew with that initial besides…

“Vincent, is there something you want to tell us?” Alice lifted the sheath, showing it to the others. The rage seemed to drain out of him in an instant.

Vincent sighed and seemed to steel himself. “I gave it to him about a month ago… To commemorate our relationship. I’ve had feelings for Ryan for a long time, ever since we were kids actually. I thought it was just some stupid infatuation thing. But as we grew up, I realised that I kept thinking about him. Every time he grinned at me when we bickered, I felt like a blind man seeing the sun. And now he’s gone.” Vincent’s voice broke at this juncture as he tried but failed to hold back tears. Mary stepped in to rub soothing circles on his back, allowing him to continue.

“About two months ago, Ryan came to find me after class. He confessed that he’d split amicably with Mary… said he’d started to realise he had feelings for someone else. I could barely believe it, I thought he was pulling my leg at first… I would have never imagined that he’d return my feelings. But it was true. He genuinely liked me and I was over the moon. Over the past two months, I’ve been happier than I ever thought was possible.” A soft smile tugged at Vincent’s lips.

“What about that argument last night?” Mary asked.

Vincent winced. “Ryan… He said that with finals over, he wanted to come clean about our relationship, to stop having to hide his feelings for me around the rest of you. I reacted badly, to say the least. My parents aren’t exactly the most open-minded people, and I was terrified the rest of you would reject me if you found out. It escalated from there, and… you know what happened next.”

Alice thought back to Ryan and Vincent’s odd behaviour at dinner the previous night, the familiar and almost affectionate banter they’d engaged in. Suddenly, their behaviour over the past few weeks made sense.

Looking uncomfortable, Vincent continued. “I went to his room early this morning to apologise. I wanted to see him before anyone else was awake. I’d gone to bed thinking of the hurtful words I’d hurled at him, and I couldn’t bear to think that our argument might have shattered our relationship. When I saw him lying there…”

At this point, Vincent’s already shaky composure began to crumble. “I loved him. I love him, and the last thing I ever told him was that his lack of common sense would kill him. And now he’s gone.” As he finished, he let out a heart-wrenching sob.

“Oh Vincent, we wouldn’t have minded if you’d told us earlier. I already suspected Ryan had feelings for someone else and it wasn’t a girl. I’m so sorry for your loss.” Mary pulled Vincent into a hug. Alice wrapped her arms around both of them from behind.

Hayley stood apart from her friends, at a loss for words. At length, she choked out, “I’m so sorry. More sorry than you will ever know.”

* * *

Outside the cabin, Alice saw that the wind had died down and the snowy landscape was encased in crystalline stillness. It was a peaceful sight and gave no hint to the snowstorm that had been raging previously.

Deciding to try the phone again, Alice was surprised to find that it worked. As the dial tone rang and rang, her mind went back to the events of the past few hours. So many things had happened. A childhood friend was dead, another had lied incessantly and one more had finally revealed his true feelings – and lost his boyfriend. Did she truly know these people? Did all their years of friendship mean nothing when they could have easily turned on each other just like that?

She didn’t know, and that scared her.

Yet, even after everything Hayley had done, Alice found that she still cared for her and considered her a friend. She turned around and caught sight of Mary pulling Hayley into a hug, tears running down her cheeks.

The line finally connected.

“911, how may I help you?”

There were so many things to say and Alice wasn’t sure where to start. She wasn’t done thinking about the whole incident yet, but at least she could pass the burden of judgement to the authorities instead.

“Officer,” Alice paused, looking at Hayley. The former ice queen looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. “We have a dead body.”


End file.
